Friday:
 · Gift of Gab, the wordsmith behind Bay-area duo Blackalicious, teams up with labelmate Lateef at Southpaw. Brooklyn's own (as opposed to everyone else who will in attendance) the Real Live Show opens with some homegrown hip-hop funk. [flavorpill]
· Here's a secret as guarded as Anderson Cooper's sexuality: Beck is playing a "surprise" show at Hiro tonight. No ticket? No interest? OC rockers Ambulance LTD play at Northsix in Billyburg. [Paper]
Saturday:
 · Flavorpill calls the PEN World Voices Festival the undoubted "literary event of the year." Yeah, if you're literate. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of people we've only read about, and not actually read: Salman Rushdie, Wole Soyinka, Margaret Atwood, Ryszard Kapuscinski, yada yada yada. [flavorpill]
· Calling all Vice/Fader/Spin (psyche! Not quite hip enough) readers: this UK grime thing that has you drooling will finally rear its mish-mashed little head up on the left side of the Atlantic tonight at Crash Mansion. Do it just to do it before the trend's dead. [GoldSpot]
Sunday:
 · We'll be honest: we haven't the faintest clue who artist Leon Golub is. We do know, though, that a bunch of people with ridiculously awesome names (Hans Haacke, Declan McGonagle, Phong Bui) are celebrating his legacy tonight at Cooper Union. Who said art's not fun? [flavorpill]
· Weren't you supposed to do some shit for the IRS?